John Kogel

Thanks for sharing. [] Can somebody (banker?) actually offer something like that for sale with a clear conscience? I suppose it is just another address they would never set foot in themselves.

They were obviously proud of their products. I see an asbestos mountain behind those buildings. Did that all get shipped away?

The original 1947 weatherhead is there, still in use but in a horizontal position. Yes, you are correct to call that mess out for immediate repair. I wouldn't bother with code rules for something like that. No intelligent person will deny that it is wrong and hazardous.

I see galvanized pipe on the right. Looks like water supply plummin to me. [] You exwercised it? Didn't know you were into exersism.

Copied from earlier posts by the Airco Guru. You may wish to contact him- Howard Pike Location: Colquitlam, BC Canada Bio: Chimo Furnace owner since 1988 Airco/Olsen Product Engineer 1979 to 1988 BCIT Grad (Mech Tech) in 1979 CSB Ministries Rep since 2001 Company Information: Chimo Furnace Service Ltd Coquitlam, BC started building "Airco" gas furnaces under licence (that's Canadian for "license") in 1956. Basically, they were buying the heat exchangers from an American manufacturer (probably Armstrong) until they could build their own "unique" clamshells in 1957 or '58. By unique, I mean identical, until they were forced to make a small dimensional change to avoid legal problems in the early '60's. This heat exchanger was used in the Highboy, Counterflow and Console models (AGH/AH; AGCF/ACF; and AGC/AC) from 1956 through 1985/86. Howard P the AGH is "A"irco "G"as "H"ighboy. It probably has three cast iron burners. It's life expectancy is unknown, for while Terasen will use photos of old Airco's to pitch their replacement programs, there has been NO failure pattern for the Airco Highboys. Sixty years is reasonable. The heat exchangers were amply wide and sufficiently tall to keep the flames well away from the metal. In a normal home, the Airco heat exchanger doesn't rust or crack. The 100-AGH is the smallest input in the Airco three burner furnaces, so it's the furnace with the longest life-expectancy. The furnace had a belt-drive 1/4 HP (was originally a 1/6 HP) motor. It should use a 24 volt thermostat. It's a great furnace, and very reliable. However, it was rated at 80% efficiency in those days - that's steady-state efficiency. But, that was the reality plus 5%. The same model by 1986 was only 76% steady state and figured to be about 55% AFUE - Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency - over the year. When Airco came out with the Airco Turbo at 81% AFUE in 1981, several tests were done to compare the new mid-efficiency's to the old standard-efficiency furnaces (what you have). The average savings was 23% over the winter. That means that if you were to change out your Airco and put in a new High Efficiency furnace (which our government requires for new installations), your savings should be about 35%. And yet, you have one of the most reliable furnaces ever built.

JFYI. the rule here is one meter or 3 feet approx. This allows the trap to be under the subfloor in a crawlspace or basement. This is done in island sinks sometimes. If the trap is below the floor, then the vent can be run under the floor to a vent stack in the wall. This works in Canada, but not in the USA. I am not a plumber and this could just be a local quirk in the rules.[]

The double taps are actually the surge protector connections. I do see an unmarked white being uses as hot though. Is it required to color code the wire on a 240-volt circuit? I thought that only applied to relatively large gauge wires, but I'm not sure. The top 20 amp breaker is interesting. I see 30 amp with a too small gauge wire on it. [:-thumbd] Old installations, the color coding is irrelavent, not required back in the day. JMO, I am no authority on the NEC.

John, any chance that was the north side of the roof? Moisture in the attic in the middle of the summer from the swimming pool? Yes, North side. I don't know when the moisture was worst. Only was there for 3 hrs, eh? []Maybe in the fall when they were heating the pool? The attic had mould and stains only where the pool was adjacent. Still just a guess on my part.

If there is a basement where there might have been a furnace I would say it was a remote furnace control.

You mean mould? This is Canadian attic mould. What you got there imight be a bit of stain from past mold growth. Look for a source of moist air in that area. Sometimes moist air is coming in thru the soffits, maybe from the prevailing wind. I once saw stains in the soffit areas of an attic where the people had a steamy swimming pool behind the house. Soffit ventilation was bringing moisture in. Usually the moisture is coming from warm indoor air rising from below. Seal all gaps that are leaking warm indoor air into the attic. Pot lights are always leaky. The attic hatch should be insulated and sealed with weatherstrip. Bath fans leak. Warm air rises in the walls and bleeds into the attic at the top plate This house had all those things. Click to Enlarge 65.72 KB Click to Enlarge 66.28 KB Click to Enlarge 60.97 KB

Barrel stove with a couple of big logs in it, drenched with crankcase oil. In front of that you put a shallow pot and in that pot goes more used oil and a shot of white gas to get er lit. Besides sweeping the floor and other sundry jobs, my winter duty was to keep that stove huffing. It was still icy cold in there, but not bad beside the stove. Propane catalytic heater is also a good choice.

I like the heated jacket idea. But it will get all oily and dirty. Thought Jim was referring to heating you with the big electric heater on a stand. It faces the car and you crawl in under the hood, toasty warm.

I love the paper face masks. . . It looks good (bad?) to a jury. It's the Meth. It is making them do goofy stuff. []

Hi Mac. That Main breaker interlock would be handier if it was in your subpanel. The usual practice for an undersized generator is to have a few emergency circuits in a subpanel that is fed by the interlock switch. To use that as is in the main panel, you will always need to turn off all the circuits your generator can not supply, leaving only the emergency circuit breakers on. Works but is awkward. There are insulated connectors available, Polaris is a brand name. $18. Click to Enlarge 14.89 KB

Unless the artist was making statement about the juxtaposition of our electric world backed by a sea of stones dating back billions of years. Actually, you're still right. It's wrong in every way. Here I have made a more evocative statement to prove the point. Thus the artist has portrayed the irony of the incorrect product terminated by ill conceived means to achieve the common goal of distributing power from the home to the garden shed. [] Click to Enlarge 104.61 KB

From the dirt streak on the pipe, it looks like he screwed up the drain connection too. I don't think he was a real plumber. A real plumber would have a real saw for cutting joists properly. []

It looks like an oil-based substance dripped from the roof sheathing. The stains on the wood in the third pic show that. As you mentioned in your post, it seems to be a result of work done on the roof, or from the sheathing itself, some product that soaks through drywall. It needs the scratch and sniff, taste test. Now that mouse pee is ruled out. []

Yes that is the best way, but they can still be a brute to erect without tipping back on you and /or taking out a window. My extension ladder did a dirty trick on me last week. When I started lowering it the rope jumped off the pulley and jammed. I was in a narrow fenced yard. So I had to lower a 26 foot ladder to the ground between a plum tree and a newish Volvo wagon. It felt like it would overbalance and the feet would kick out as I was bringing it down full length like that. The LG with the heavy extension part on top would be worse. I would consider securing the feet with a bungy cord maybe.

We have a lot of electric heat here. It is not a serious hazard but they could downsize that heater to a 500 or 750 Watt for a bathroom. A lot of bathrooms have electric baseboard heat and people don't get shocked or burned. Something else I see here is corrosion on the top of the BB heater from dudes missing the toilet bowl. [:-yuck]

Jim the Pest alarm is already a reality. The house I just did, 3 years old and vacant, has 3 hard-wired Pest alarms on 10-foot ceilings. These ones go "Beeeep. Alarm battery is exhausted!" in the same strident female voice, staggered about 20 seconds apart. []

It sure seems to me John that you could burn up some valuable time trying to get such answers. And no matter what they would be I'll bet that you'd make the same recommendation to your client - let the HVAC contractor figure it out. [] Eric, a poem from the Great War -Our's is not to question why, our's is but to do and die.

I just read it too. Honestly, I probably would have just put the hose back on. I could have done that. Twice. But then we wouldn't be having this educational discussion. [] The hoses are not plugged. I wanted the furnaces to be checked out, the real reason I didn't put them back on.

Picky, picky. It's fat on one side but it works just fine. [:-hspin]

You may be misunderstanding my thought process. I don't need to assign blame. I need to know if it was willfully removed. If so, why? Was it causing a problem? One hose, somebody forgot or it blew off. Two furnaces, same hose off, I wonder if there is a mysterious reason for removing the hose.

I went back to look for a brick lining and found this collage of smoke stack pics. Click to Enlarge 95.45 KB Click to Enlarge 53.48 KB Click to Enlarge 63.49 KB Click to Enlarge 59.84 KB Click to Enlarge 106.74 KB Click to Enlarge 77.69 KB